Cancel that spectrum licence issued to MTN

This is a sponsored post By Daniel Adoza.

These are interesting times for the Nigerian telecoms networks and their subscribers. While we are still on the sale of Visafone and its 4G LTE spectrum to MTN Nigeria, yet another controversy is brewing.

Before he was sacked as Director General of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Emeka Mba had sanctioned the sale of the 700MHz spectrum – to the same telecommunications network, MTN Nigeria.

What bothers discerning stakeholders in the telecoms sector is the fact that NBC did not have the right to sell the spectrum which it has been directed to vacate. Rather, that is the responsibility of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the regulator of the telecommunications industry, which is also given the powers to assign spectrum to telecommunications service providers.

These are some of the grave implications of this wrong action.

·        MTN now has more facilities to continue to dominate the Nigerian telecoms sector, killing competition and leaving subscribers with little or no choice.

·         By not keeping to NCC’s policy of granting spectrums on fair and equitable basis, NBC has placed other competitors in a disadvantaged position thus stifling further growth of the industry. All over the world – and also previously in Nigeria – spectrums are publicly auctioned. But this is not the case in the sale of the 700MHz band by NBC to MTN; thus the interest of both foreign and local investors in the Nigerian telecoms industry will begin to wane as they can no longer trust our regulatory agencies to make wholesale decision to provide a fair playing field for their investments to thrive.

The Nigerian telecommunications subscriber must not be allowed to suffer a disadvantage by this anti-competitive decision of the NBC. What has made the Nigerian telecoms industry grow faster than it was envisaged is the vivacity and the diverse options and innovation which were driven by competition. We can’t afford to lose that now.

In the interest of stakeholders in the industry and the Nigerian economy, the Federal Government should order the NBC to cancel this transaction and release the 700MHz spectrum to NCC in line with the ITU agreement.

Adoza is an economic analyst in Lagos